When Triumph introduced its radical (for them, anyway) new Thunderbird last year, its sights were set firmly on Harley-Davidson. Of course, to beat the standard bearer it helps to think outside the box and try something different.

Refusing to copy the trend of virtually every cruiser on the market today, the boys in Hinckley decided to power the Thunderbird with a parallel-Twin engine instead of the venerable V-Twin. Not only that, but Triumph took its expertise in parallel-Twins and produced the largest production version ever made – one that left a rather positive impression on our very own Kevin Duke, leaving him more impressed than he thought he'd be during the bike's world introduction in Spain.

For the new year, Triumph is taking a page out of America's book and upping the ante with the new Thunderbird Storm. Simply put, while the T-Bird is an elegant, respectful cruiser, the Storm is a certifiable badass.

In the review it said the Triumph Thunderbird Storm would be $13,900 or something around that. That must be in the USA because here in Australia last year the Thunderbird was approx $23,000 so I imagine the new Storm will be $24,000 - $25,000.
I might sound ignorant but with our dollar being on par with the US can you tell me why we are paying $10,000 plus more.

I payed $15990 for my 2009 America on road with slash cut exhausts fitted. There has been a deal over the last few months for 2010 models where you could buy a Speedmaster or America for $13990. I can't understand the price difference between the USA and Australia, can anyone help with this??
Thanks

It's not just Australia but also New Zealand and I believe it also applies to the UK.

The RRP for a Tiger 800 in the US is US$9,999, here they are priced at US$15,200 which includes a sales tax of 15%. If that tax was added to the US RRP it means there's still over $3.500 additional cost here.

There must be some hidden import tariffs in your countries. Also, I think the manufacturers price their products to what the market will bear in light of their competition. Are similar Japanese and German bikes equally as expensive over the U.S. prices? I used to be that the Australian dollar was about .78 USD. Some of the price difference could be attributed to that. Canada also had a premium amount over U.S. prices but not to that extent. The Australian and Canadian dollars are about in parity with the US dollar but no manufacturer will reduce your prices to be equal and they can't raise US prices that much either and maintain market share. I have a Hyundai Genesis sedan with the 4.6 385hp V8 and all the options. A model not even available to Koreans in their home market. The car retails for $43800 USD here. In Korea the base 3.3 V6 with no extras retails for the equivalent of $57000 USD in Korean currency leading to a healthy market of reimporting Korean cars back from America for a profit. Go figure.

First of all, the only cruiser I've ever owned was a Vmax which strangely I owned twice. Saw the same bike all covered in ****e and obviously no pride of ownership given to it and bought it for dirt cheap privately. I didn't realize it was the same bike I had previously owned until I started cleaning it up. Between the time I sold it and got it back it had racked up a whopping 4200 miles...LOL.

Anyway, after owning 4 Hinckleys, I wouldn't hesitate to buy a new Tbird, if I was into the cruiser thing, which I'm getting attracted to because of the heavy duty fines and license suspension penalties now invoked by Big Brother in this province. 30kph over the limit and you can see your bike impounded for a week with towing and storage charges applied to the 3 hundred and something dollar fine and then you can expect a letter from the Motor Vehicle office either warning you or taking away your license for another 3 months.

I've been doing research on Victorys but their humongous rear tire turns me off. Supposedly really screws up the handling, especially in the wet.

The only other cruiser I'd be interested in is the Guzzi Jackal, renamed the Stone. I rode one and it's fun. Of course I owned 2 Guzzis before that so I'm a bit biased. The Jackal I rode is a minimalist cruiser that has tons of ground clearance. It was fun in corners!

Oh ya, excuse me, I've had a couple of beers with some riding buddies today and forgot the plot for a bit.

To all the people outside of N.America. Check with your customs and excise branch of the gov't on importing motorcycles. In Canada atm our dollar is almost at par with the US dollar. I can and have imported 3 bikes before from the USA. Each country you are from will have different regs of course but from where I am I can import all Jap bikes, all BMWs, most Harleys,KTMs but no MVagustas (that will change I heard) no Bimotas unless older than 15 years. I won't bore you any longer but it's very straight forward procedure to import bikes here. Now this could be part of the N.American free trade deal but I have no idea what if any trade deals Oz or NZ have with Europe/England. I would suggest you google your country's Federal Gov't web site to get more info.

I payed $15990 for my 2009 America on road with slash cut exhausts fitted. There has been a deal over the last few months for 2010 models where you could buy a Speedmaster or America for $13990. I can't understand the price difference between the USA and Australia, can anyone help with this??
Thanks

Transportation costs?

If anyone wants to do the leg work in their country on the regs, I can see a business opportunity here. In fact, I know of at least 2 dealerships who bought up certain models of bikes back in the 90's, got a container and shipped them somewhere. I was never privy to where they went but I had a KZ1300 that I doubled my money on the paying price when I sold it to a Yamaha dealer. Rumour has it, it ended up in Japan.

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